Things we don't see any more:-

[joydivision]

In the just under 6 years I have been running this business I was faced with an early Athlon XP 1700 with a PChips motherboard but no DDR support, it had 256MB of RAM. Amazingly I was able to purchase some brand new Samsung 512MB PC133 RAM for just £11.00. Until then it had been a good couple of years since I have seen PC133 SDRAM.

Here is a list of things I now rarely or never see:-

SDRAM
AGP Graphics card
AT Power supplies!
CRT monitors
802.11b access points

Also noticed that PS/2 keyboards and mouse and IDE hard drives and DDR RAM is are becoming rarer things to deal with. Although if I am building a PC which has PS/2 ports, I tend to buy PS/2 keyboards/mice as it will free up two USB ports.

 

[Kitten Kong]

You can add floppy discs, pcmcia wireless cards, pcmcia modem cards, Socket 370 chips, p2 mobo's, and modems to your list too. The list is endless..

I remember only a couple of years ago, a client wanting a stick of 512 sdram, and it costing me in excess of £45!.

In the end, I sold him a refurbished computer, as it was only running a 1.3Ghz, p3.

 

[joydivision]

Prices seem very cheap for SDRAM atm, I remember needing to upgrade one around two years ago too but it again around £45 then so told the client to get a new machine, it was a PIII 700 I think with 128MB of RAM.

I remember when I started university back in 2002 the floppies were still being used, but we were advised in get a ZIP disk instead as all the machines had a ZIP 250 drive fitted.

By 2003 I got sick of the reliability problems and purchased a 64MB USB stick for around £60!.

I remember building many 486 SX era machines, but that was well before I started running my business, in fact I was still in school.

I don't see any Windows 98 PCs any more either, had to recover data of a Windows ME one a few weeks back though.

 

[NETWizz]

Don't see Windows 2000 anymore, Windows NT, or really anything older than XP.

Don't see anything older than Pentium 4.

Rarely still see any IDE drives. Don't see any CD-ROM drives.

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

Centronics
Co-Ax ethernet
ISA cards
Serial mice
Din keyboard connectors


Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk

 

[joydivision]

I do still occasionally come across centronic connectors, very rarely though. I remember even circa 2005 it was possible to still buy network cards with the co-axial socket on them too.

Just imagine if they were still around, what a nightmare.

 

[PBComputer]

Something I came across the other day was a client needing data off a 5.25" floppy drive.

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

You can't beat a good nostalgia thread

Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk

 

[ATTech]

Haven't seen RIMMs lately.

 

[Martyn]

Offices being burgled purely for ram as they were many years ago. I went into an office in London and the whole lot of computers on a floor had been cleared of memory.

 

[joydivision]

Something I came across the other day was a client needing data off a 5.25" floppy drive.

Had to that three times, but often the disks have not been used for over 20 years, so I can only usually get a partial success rate. I once had to convert a database which had not been used since 1983 (DBASE) into Access, it was a professors project he needed to work on some 25 years after he finished it.

 

[sassenach]

Plastic covers for PC and printer, daisy wheels, processors soldered to the motherboard and serial modems

 

[joydivision]

Don't most netbooks and netops have a BGA processor soldered directly onto the motherboard?

 

[Rob]

Never say never. I had a PC in last week that was the server for a POS system in a local store. DRAM, DIN keyboard, no usb, HDD <1gb. It was a veteran!

 

[glricht]

Never say never...

Boy, isn't that the truth!

About 3 weeks ago had a customer call about PC problems. During the conversation, I was trying to determine which Windows she was using as it sounded pre-XP (I occasionally get a Win 98 call, but don't do them anymore).

Turns out she was using Windows 3.1! (I had a Win 95 user call about a year ago, but never Win 3.1!)

 

[allanc]

Boy, isn't that the truth!

About 3 weeks ago had a customer call about PC problems. During the conversation, I was trying to determine which Windows she was using as it sounded pre-XP (I occasionally get a Win 98 call, but don't do them anymore).

Turns out she was using Windows 3.1! (I had a Win 95 user call about a year ago, but never Win 3.1!)

I just migrated a Dbase app from 1991 to Windows 7 Professional.
Still runs!

 

[allanc]

Boy, isn't that the truth!

About 3 weeks ago had a customer call about PC problems. During the conversation, I was trying to determine which Windows she was using as it sounded pre-XP (I occasionally get a Win 98 call, but don't do them anymore).

Turns out she was using Windows 3.1! (I had a Win 95 user call about a year ago, but never Win 3.1!)

I recently upgraded a doctor's office from one NT and one '98.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Ive just been on a call to one of our local shops, in relation to their dvd rental machine.

Cripes, this is one of the oldest I have ever seen!.

Old old, P2, 200Mhz, 16Mb SD ram, Fuj 4.3Gb drive, Din k/b, serial mouse, floppy, AT PSU, cd rom, 3 ISA slots, no pci slots, parallel dot matrix printer running win 95.

They only use it for dvd rentals, need nothing fast, the dust bunnies, were over whelming!. Looks like it had never been cleaned out. (Couldn't take pics, as I was on site, in the shop, client over my shoulder every step. Even when I took the machine into the warehouse to blow it).

Problem was the floppy drive and memory.

Luckily for my client, I have some old floppies in storage, and a box of SD Ram. Replaced those, machine now up and running again.

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

Ive just been on a call to one of our local shops, in relation to their dvd rental machine.

Cripes, this is one of the oldest I have ever seen!.

Old old, P2, 200Mhz, 16Mb SD ram, Fuj 4.3Gb drive, Din k/b, serial mouse, floppy, AT PSU, cd rom, 3 ISA slots, no pci slots, parallel dot matrix printer running win 95.

They only use it for dvd rentals, need nothing fast, the dust bunnies, were over whelming!. Looks like it had never been cleaned out. (Couldn't take pics, as I was on site, in the shop, client over my shoulder every step. Even when I took the machine into the warehouse to blow it).

Problem was the floppy drive and memory.

Luckily for my client, I have some old floppies in storage, and a box of SD Ram. Replaced those, machine now up and running again.

wow! that machine just covered 90% of the items in this thread!

 

[Kitten Kong]

Yep Kev, and you should see what they call their POS tills. Not to mention the 'server'. this guy is in dire need of a major it upgrade. I have mentioned this to my client, he is thinking about it, and will let me know within the week.

Ps, the 'server' is what they call the back office machine. It generates all the prices and stock codes for the pos tills, which is then transmitted over COAX to the pos tills, which is then used for the scanners.

Should be a nice little job, if I get this one.